This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0078827, filed on Aug. 26, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present embodiments relate to a plasma display panel (PDP).
2. Description of the Related Art
Plasma display panels (PDPs), which are increasingly being used as replacements for conventional cathode ray tubes (CRTs), are display devices that obtain images by sealing two substrates with a plurality of discharge electrodes formed thereon with a discharge gas, applying a discharge voltage to the discharge electrodes to generate ultraviolet (UV) rays, and exciting a phosphor pattern with the UV rays.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional three-electrode type surface discharge PDP 100 similar to a PDP disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1998-172442. The PDP 100 includes a first substrate 101, sustain electrodes 106 and 107 disposed on a bottom surface of the first substrate 101, a first dielectric layer 109 covering the sustain electrodes 106 and 107, a protection layer 111 which covers the first dielectric layer 109, a second substrate 115 disposed to face the first substrate 101, address electrodes 117 disposed on the second substrate 115 parallel to each other, a second dielectric layer 113 covering the address electrodes 117, barrier ribs 114 disposed on the second dielectric layer 113, and a phosphor layer 110 disposed on a top surface of the second dielectric layer 113 and sidewalls of the barrier ribs 114.
However, in the conventional three-electrode type surface discharge PDP 100, 40% of visible rays emitted from the phosphor layer 110 are absorbed by the sustain electrodes 106 and 107 disposed on the bottom surface of the first substrate 101, the first dielectric layer 109 covering the sustain electrodes 106 and 107, and the protection layer 111, thereby lowering luminous efficiency. In addition, when the conventional three-electrode type surface discharge PDP 100 displays the same image for a long period of time, the phosphor layer 110 is ion sputtered by charged particles of the discharge gas, thereby causing permanent image sticking.
To address the problems mentioned above, Korean Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 2005-40635 discloses a PDP with improved luminance and brightness efficiencies by disposing discharge electrodes on sidewalls of barrier ribs to cause a discharge.
However, in the structure in which the discharge electrodes are disposed on the sidewalls of the barrier ribs as described above, only terminals of discharge electrodes connected to an external signal transmitting element are exposed outside a group of barrier ribs. In this case, the structure of the terminals of the discharge electrodes are weak, and thus the terminals of the discharge electrodes are susceptible to damage when connecting the terminal to the external signal transmitting element.
In other words, if the terminals of the discharge electrodes alone are exposed outside the group of barrier ribs without a separate support, the terminals are shaped in a cantilever beam. Generally, the terminals of the discharge electrodes are formed using, for example, a printing method, and thus the strength of the terminals is weak in addition to being susceptible to external forces. Consequently, the terminal of the electrode in the shape of the cantilever beam can easily be damaged by an external force applied thereto. However, in the process of connecting the terminal of the discharge electrode to the signal transmitting element, shear force and bending moment are inevitably applied to the terminal of the discharge electrodes. Thus, the terminals of the discharge electrodes get easily damaged when being coupled to the signal transmitting element, thereby increasing inferior goods rate and accordingly, increasing costs.